Monsoon fury in Patiala: 3-foot sand in fields, race against time for farmers to resow paddy

Aman Sood

Patiala, July 25

The swollen Ghaggar has left the fields unfit for sowing crops due to sand deposits in Patiala district.

Thousands of acres in the villages along the Ghaggar, Tangri and Badi Nadi have up to 3-ft sand deposits, which makes it impossible to grow crops.

Labourers refuse to enter fields

I am removing sand from half acre daily. I was ready to pay extra money to labourers to sow the paddy saplings again, but they refused to enter the fields. Bhupinder Singh, a farmer

Bhupinder Singh (46), a resident of Sanjarpur village, Ghanaur, said, “I am removing sand from half acre daily. Farmers are racing against time to prepare their fields once again for transplanting paddy.”

He said, “I was ready to pay extra bucks to labourers to sow the paddy saplings again, but they refused to enter the fields. The showers have made matters worse.”

Thus, the affected farmers have been forced to spend money on removing sand from their fields.

Gurdeep Singh of Untsar village said, “Firstly, we need to remove a huge quantity of sand from the fields. Secondly, we need to figure out where to throw it. Farmers are unsure of the yield of the crops sown at this moment.”

He said, “No financial assistance has been announced by the government so far. The water has entered our fields twice in the last 10 days.”

Agriculture experts said consumption of fertilisers and pesticides would increase due to the sand deposits.

“Irrigating fields will be a major challenge as flooding has damaged tubewells. Marginal farmers can’t buy expensive equipment at this point of time,” they said.